Birth of the Champion
by Silas Jericho
Summary: This story follows Lee, a young man who slowly evolves into something more. Lots of cameos. Not rated M right now, but later.


Lee was sprinting as fast as his short legs could carry him, running only as fast as a seven-year-old could. He could hear the crowd of older boys chasing after him, closing in on him every second or so, making Lee only panic more and more. Julian and all of those other kids were always bullying him, making fun of his quietness and strange capabilities. They laughed at him for talking to Pokémon, even though they all vividly wanted their own to care for, but he was an exception apparently. The next thing he knew, Lee was hoisted off of his feet by Julian's crony, Big Wallace. This guy's dad must've been a freaking Machamp; because he was built like one and definitely smelled like one after it had worked out. But there he hung; upside-down and he could feel his face turning red, because he now saw all the other guys laughing at his predicament. Lee started swinging at Big Wallace, but the bigger boy didn't even flinch or act like he was mildly bugged.

"Well, well," Said Julian, smirking that disgusting smile he always had on his face. "Looks like little Leeland here is in a pickle. Oh, and guess what? I got MY Pokémon today and I think the two of you will have a fun time playing. Hehehehe…" He stood back while all the other boys formed a circle around us, creating the rough shape of a ring, ensuring that Lee couldn't escape. Julian pulled out a Poke-ball and shouted as he threw the ball, "GO, GASTLY!" Lee tensed up as he had heard horror stories of this Pokémon tormenting people for years, till they either killed themselves or they died of fright. The familiar *whoosh* of a Pokémon being summoned from its ball filled the empty opening of the forest they were in, then a voice spoke out of the darkness and it said, "Gastly… Gast…" Lee froze up as the Pokémon drifted out of the darkness, its shape becoming apparent to him; the shape of a portion of fog or smoke floated in front of him, and those malicious eyes stared at him with such intent of malice that shouldn't even exist. Lee started to struggle as much as he could against Wallace's grip, but to no avail. Julian then yelled, "Wallace, put him down, I don't need my best man getting hurt in this little exchange." Wallace dropped Lee on his head, breaking the small boy's glasses as he hit the ground face-first. The big boy then joined the circle and made escape now all the more impossible. Lee then became aware that he could hear the Gastly in his head, and it said, "_I shall make you suffer, Lee. You will feel a pain tonight that no human has ever experienced_." Lee's eyes widened and he spoke back, in his head, and begged, "_Please, what've I done to deserve this? I have never wronged you or your master! Please, just let me go! I just want to be back home, sleeping in my bed or reading my books! Please, leave me alone!_" The Gastly cackled in his head and said, "_You stupid fool! I shall destroy your very mind and you will be nothing but a shell of what you were!_" Lee started to feel a hand-like grasp around his head, squeezing and squeezing until he was losing grip on reality. Then he saw it, through the hole in the seemingly impenetrable forest roof, a gleam of moonlight. Not much, but enough to see that there was something in the shadows behind the circle of boys. Then he blacked-out…

Lee woke up in a cold sweat, gasping for air as he reached around for his glasses. He found them and turned on the lamp next to his bed; he slid the glasses on and looked around the room, to assure that there was nothing there. And like always, there was nothing in the room around him, other than his mother's Arcanine that liked to sleep at the foot of his bed, always keeping his feet warm. He put his hand to his face and sighed, sickened and tired of this reoccurring nightmare. The event had occurred four years ago, but it still haunted him to this very day, making sleep very difficult and valuable to him. He leaned against his bed post and looked about the room, thinking that after tomorrow, this would be his last night that he would sleep here for a LONG time. Because tomorrow, he was getting what every boy or girl in the world always got on their eleventh birthday: a Pokémon. He had grown close to the town professor, Richard Oak, who was the great-grandson of the legendary Professor Oak. He had always grown up not even knowing the older professor's name, but it didn't bother him too much. Anyway, Lee had grown close to Richard, becoming his sort-of lab assistant and helped the Professor on his field work and Pokémon DNA research. The Professor had a gift for him, and though Lee knew it was going to be a Pokémon, the Professor refused to tell him what it was. But that was ok, because he liked semi-surprises anyway.

Lee looked at the clock on his bed-side table and it read 3:25 a.m. He sighed and looked up on his ceiling, where Arcanine had fallen through as a Growlithe learning to control his fiery-capabilities. He didn't know what kind of Pokémon he wanted, but he was sure he wanted some type of Electric, Ground, or Fire-type. He turned off the lamp and started to go back to sleep when he chanced to look out his window and see something staring back. He gasped and it flew away, whatever it was, but it had scared him enough.

He hid under his covers, trying to remember what it could've been. It couldn't have been Julian's Gastly, because he had left on his travels two years ago. And it couldn't have been any of the other boys, because they had all left as well, so he didn't know who it could've been…

He awoke to the licking of Arcanine to his face, just like any other morning. He said, "Get off of me, you mutt! Agh! Stop!" Arcanine barked and jumped down, wagging his tail. The dog came over and started nudging his arm, obviously wanting his breakfast that would be gone in three seconds anyway. He sighed and got up to feed the dog. He walked down the steps and turned onto the platform at the bottom of the staircase and then saw a whole crowd of people staring at him, in his nightshirt and boxer shorts. They all said, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LEE!" His best friend, Allen, said, "Hahaha, nice boxers, horizontal stripes!" Everyone had a good laugh and he ran up stairs and came back down, fully dressed. "Now," Lee said. "We can start this party."

An hour or so into the party, he and Allen were sitting on his porch, watching some of the others have Pokémon battles that the older people were having. Allen already had his Pokémon, a very healthy and happy Poliwhirl, which he had witnessed hatch and evolve. It was sitting in the space between the two friends, snoozing after a hard-won battle against a Weepinbell, winning with a very dangerous series of punches to the plant's face. "Well, Lee," Allen said, stroking his Pokémon's head. "They should be giving you your Pokémon soon. Man, I'm so excited for you! I can't wait to see what the Professor gives to you!" Lee nodded and said, "Yeah, me neither. I can't help but think, though, what if it doesn't like me?" Allen shook his head. "Nah, because once a Pokémon meets its master for the first time, they instantaneously form a life-bond. You know that." Lee just shook his head and watched the battle before him. It was his neighbor, Diana and her Graveler versus his mom and Arcanine. Things did not look well for Arcanine, because after that volley of Rollouts, he looked pretty beat. The Graveler then jumped at him, presumably to perform its finishing maneuver: Body Slam. As it was coming down through the air, Arcanine moved out of the way and the rock-Pokémon hit the ground hard. It was groaning as it stood back up, then Arcanine released his special move that he didn't use too often: Giga Impact. The move absolutely crushed Graveler, which ended the battle; Arcanine released a roar of victory and fell over from exhaustion. Lee's mother drew him back to his very-rarely-used Poke-ball.

An hour or so later, the Professor pulled him aside and said, "Lee, it's time for me to give you your special present. C'mon." The Professor led him to his lab and they went to his study, which was extremely cluttered from an excess of books and un-used Poke-balls. He cleared a space on his desk and withdrew three Poke-balls from his jacket pocket, which he laid out across the empty space on the desk. "Now, Lee," Professor Oak said. "I want you to choose one. Whichever one you'd like, but I'm not going to tell you what they contain. I want this decision to be completely self-driven, so you know in your heart that whichever Pokémon you get is the one you were destined to train." The Professor stepped away from the desk, a very solemn look on his face. The only thing illuminating the room was the desk lamp, which made it look as if the only things that had any significance were the Poke-balls. Which was correct, of course, but Lee worried about this. What if he got an extremely weak or girly Pokémon? He held out his hand hovering above the three balls, his hand shaking ever-so slightly. He moved it back and forth above them, trying to figure out which to take. Finally, he said out loud, "I can't do this! There's far too much pressure!" Richard sighed and stepped forward to take them off the desk, when all of a sudden, a very powerful explosion shook the Professor's study. The blast knocked Lee and Richard off their feet and on to the ground, when out of the darkness came a mechanical claw. It seemed to look about, as if it were genuinely searching for something, when it burst forward with a sense of purpose. It grasped the third-generation Oak by his leg and started dragging him out of the hole in the side of the building; the Professor desperately grabbed his desk to try and stop the progress of the claw. Richard shouted to Lee, "HELP ME, LEE! TAKE ONE OF THE POKE-BALLS, NOW!" The balls had fallen out onto the ground and had settled at Lee's feet. He grabbed the one on the far right and threw it.

*WHOOSH* and through the smoke he saw a figure, one that was floating slightly off the ground. "Ab, abra!" It was an Abra. Lee didn't even think about it as he said, "ABRA, USE EXTRASENSORY!" The small Pokémon instantly complied, bending the claw's arm till it snapped off and fell onto the ground, shaking the whole room. Lee was amazed at the small little thing's power, but it was there before him. It came to him and nudged him on the leg with his head, as a Skitty or Meowth might do. He petted the Abra on its head and he said, "Good, boy. Or are you a girl? Whatever. Good job anyway, buddy." It exclaimed its name in happiness and said to him inside his head, "_Thanks, Lee! By the way, I'm a boy. My name is really Clarity, which my good mother named me. Glad that I shared my knowledge with you in that one second before you told me what to do?"_ Lee was shocked. "_You told me that? I thought that was just good judgment._" Clarity laughed in his head. "_Well, it was partly that, and I could feel you were coming to that decision, but I just gave you that extra shove you needed. You ought to be more assure of yourself, Lee. You've got the mindset to be a great leader, if you could grow out of that awkward shell._" Lee was the one to laugh this time, but he did so out loud. "_Ha, you're funny. Clarity, I'm never gonna' be a good leader. I don't have that split-second ability to decide on what to do._" Clarity said, "_Nah, you've got it in you. Trust me; I think being a trainer will help you develop that. But enough talk, we should check on the Professor._" Lee realized he was right and ran over to Oak's unmoving body. He was unconscious and seemed very injured. "Clarity, go and get help for him!" The Abra nodded his head and teleported out of view. Lee dragged the Professor over to the desk, took off his jacket and used it to support Richard's head. He slumped against the desk and sighed. "I'm gonna' be a trainer. If this is what it's going to be like, I'm not sure if I have what it takes to be the very best, like no one ever was…" 


End file.
